Nearly everyone knows who Florence Nightingale was, but this book reveal so much more. It's a portrait of the 19th century society of drawing rooms that she lived in and the battlefields she worked in; the long, crinolined dresses she wore and the obstacles she faced. Pritchard moves beyond the "legend" of Florence nightingale to the woman who rebelled against her family and her society to move nursing to a skilled practice. Highly receommed. ( )

As a girl, I read I-don't-know-how-may Florence Nightingale bios, but they were largely the kind of hagiography handed out to children and nothing like Melissa Pritchard's Flight of the Wild Swan. Fictional biography is an odd genre because one wants to read it as truth, but one can't do that. I don't know how much the "real" Nightingale was like the Nightingale Pritchard gives us, but Pritchard's Nightingale is an excellent woman to spend time with: fierce, brilliant, furious about the limitations placed on her sex, querulous, impatient with family, and unrelenting in pursuit of the life she has envisioned for herself.

Flight of the Wild Swan—like many Bellevue Literary Press titles—is a book that helps us see beyond the simpler versions of stories we think we're familiar with. It offers an excellent read.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own. ( )

Keep the scientist, the statistician, the nurse. Preserve the myth. History a jumble of half-truths anyway. Let the fire eat her rage, her failures. Let her become what each generation needs her to be. A light to lead the others.
from Flight of the Wild Swan by Melissa Pritchard

This is the story of Florence Nightingale, one of the most remarkable women in history.

This is the story of a brilliant mind who chafed at society’s restricted roles for women and who believed she was the hands of God, called to heal.

This is the story of despair and torment. Florence was born to a comfortable life, expected to marry and produce a male heir to inherit her father’s estate. But she was drowning in the life of fireside gossip and tea. Only when her despair had reached it zenith was she allowed leaway to follow her dreams of becoming a nurse.

This is a story of conviction and courage, of self-denial and servitude. She went into hell on earth, the battlefield hospitals and dead houses, and ministered to the war wounded with dignity and care. When she arrived in Crimea, more soldiers were dying from disease than in battle. She brought cleanliness, healthy food, hope. The changes she instituted vastly reduced the death rate.

Sanitation, hygiene, statistics–these are my earthly Deities.
from Flight of the Wild Swan by Melissa Pritchard

This is a story of higher calling, of a universal faith. On a trip to Egypt her understanding of a higher power was broadened, deepened, became encompassing. She listened for God’s voice to lead her, but adhered to no one doctrine.

She shunned her growing fame, suppressed her own needs, was driven to work and serve past human endurance. Even after her health broke down, she continued her reform work, using her beloved mathematics and statistics to institute groundbreaking medical practices.

In the novel, a doctor complains about the “poor chaps” who were “bribed by a shilling and a pint of beer” and “marched into the field and slaughter.” He asks, “For what? For the queen. For land and sea. For pride of empire. For that and that alone, a generation dies.” And Florence is conflicted about her role as nurse, knowing that once recovered, her patients would be sent back to the front. She could not rest, but spent her nights in the wards, lighting her way with a lantern, becoming the mythic Lady of the Lamp as she ministered to the suffering.

Florence Nightingale soared into history and legend, but in these pages you will meet a very human, conflicted, inspired, unforgettable woman. From the claustrophobia of her family to the pestilence of the Scutari hospital, Pritchard pens haunting scenes, and the letters and diary entries in Florence’s voice brings her into vivid profile.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. ( )